Attentional Selection Accompanied by Eye Vergence as Revealed by Event-Related Brain Potentials

Abstract

Neural mechanisms of attention allow selective sensory information processing. Top-down deployment of visual-spatial attention is conveyed by cortical feedback connections from frontal regions to lower sensory areas modulating late stimulus responses. A recent study reported the occurrence of small eye vergence during orienting top-down attention. Here we assessed a possible link between vergence and attention by comparing visual event related potentials (vERPs) to a cue stimulus that induced attention to shift towards the target location to the vERPs to a no-cue stimulus that did not trigger orienting attention. The results replicate the findings of eye vergence responses during orienting attention and show that the strength and time of eye vergence coincide with the onset and strength of the vERPs when subjects oriented attention. Our findings therefore support the idea that eye vergence relates to and possibly has a role in attentional selection.

Eye Vergence Responses During an Attention Task in Adults With ADHD and Clinical Controls

“…Our results show differences in eye vergence response modulation between ADHD participants and non-ADHD participants, which allow for discrimination between them. This is in agreement with previous observations in children (Sole Puig et al, 2016;Varela Casal et al, 2018). During the attention task, eyes slowly diverge; notwithstanding, brief convergence responses are observed when orienting attention.…”

“…A t test shows that this difference is significant, with p < 2.2 × 10 -16 . This convergence response has been reported before and is suggested to relate to the orientation of visuospatial attention (Sole Puig et al, 2016).…”

“…Recent studies show evidence for eye vergence analysis as an objective marker for ADHD in children (Sole Puig et al, 2016;Varela Casal et al, 2018). Eye vergence is the movement of both eyes in opposite directions and has a role in depth perception.…”

“…Eye vergence is the movement of both eyes in opposite directions and has a role in depth perception. However, eyes also converge during orienting attention, as evidenced by visual event-related potentials at parietal locations (Sole Puig et al, 2016). Based on the recordings of attention-related eye vergence during an attention task, children with ADHD can be differentiated from controls with high (92%) accuracy (Varela Casal et al, 2018).…”

Eye vergence responses to novel and familiar stimuli in young children

“…Such vergence responses were observed during top-down and bottom-up generated shifts of visual attention, where attentional load positively correlated with the strength of the vergence response ( Solé Puig, Puigcerver, et al, 2013 ). A role of vergence in attention is supported by the observation of a correlation of eye vergence responses with the neural activity encoding shifts of visual attention ( Solé Puig et al, 2016 ). Besides attention, success in memorizing objects was also associated with vergence responses ( Solé Puig et al, 2015 ).…”